Capacity

Author:Source:Datetime: 2016-07-15 09:21:32

The capacity of a
battery is basically a measure of how much power the battery can hold. Think of
it as the size of your fuel tank. The unit of measure here is milliamp hours
(mAh). This is saying how much drain can be put on the battery to discharge it
in one hour. Since we usually discuss the drain of a motor system in amps (A),
here is the conversion:

1000mAh = 1 Amp (1A)

I said that the
capacity of the battery is like the fuel tank - which means the capacity
determines how long you can run before you have to recharge. The higher the
number, the longer the run time. Airplanes and helicopters don't really have a
standard capacity, because they come in many different sizes, but for R/C cars
and trucks, the average is 5000mAh - that is our most popular battery here in
the store. But there are companies that make batteries with larger capacities.
Traxxas even has one that is over 12000mAh! That's huge, but there is a
downside to large capacities as well. The bigger the capacity, the bigger the physical
size and weight of the battery. Another consideration is heat build up in the
motor and speed control over such a long run. Unless periodically checked, you
can easily burn up a motor if it isn't given enough time to cool down, and most
people don't stop during a run to check their motor temps. Keep that in mind
when picking up a battery with a large capacity.